The Internet is an efficient tool, often helping us achieve many good things. However, the Internet proves its efficiency even at spreading paranoia. Although keeping vigilant watch over public safety is never a bad thing, there is much exaggeration, twisting of facts and outright nonsense online, that many might simply dismiss even legitimate concerns.
What is particularly of concern is when articles claim their so-called facts are backed up by scientists and evidenced by studies. This is why you need to always read with a critical and discerning eye.
Here is one of the ‘scientific articles’ floating around online.
‘Shrimp Kill Themselves After Exposure to Psychiatric Drugs’
There is an article, Apparently, water contaminated with fluoxetine, Prozac’s essential ingredient, makes the crustaceans (and presumably other marine life) more sensitive to serotonin, the chemical responsible for regulating moods. The shrimp’s unstable emotional states then lead to suicide.
This is claimed because, typically, shrimp lurk in the safe, dark parts of the watery depths. However, after exposure to Prozac, they are five times more likely to turn against their natural instinct for safety and ‘swim into the light’, where their predators prowl.
This appears a fair deduction. If drugs affect the neurobiological processes in the human brain , drugs can affect the neurobiological processes in other kinds of brains, too. But surely there are other ways to explain the changes in shrimp’s behaviour besides suicide? The idea of shrimp unable to handle their newfound existential crisis and committing mass suicide seems unbelievable. A more likely explanation would be that the chemicals affect their sensitivity to light, make them drowsier and thus unable to remain alert.
The article claiming these as “suicidal shrimp†gives facts, statistics and quotes real scientists, but the overall claim seems dubious. This is a pity, because somewhere in the article is a real concern, and that is how pharmaceutical drugs effect the environment.
The first studies were conducted in the 1970’s, when chemist Wayne Garrison found evidence of caffeine, aspirin, and various other chemicals in analyses of sewage. By the late 90’s, the United States Geological Survey was measuring levels of pharmaceutical chemicals, hormones, and other pollutants in 139 streams across the U.S. They found at least one of the 95 chemicals screened for 80% of the time, usually from steroids and non-prescription drugs. Following this, hormones and steroids were detected in more than 40% of groundwater samples in a USGS study.
Clearly, attention needs to be given to how the chemicals keeping society ‘healthy’ are contaminating the water supply and how this affects the eco-system. Spinning stories with catchy headings and outrageous claims is not the way to go about getting the deserved attention, however. In fact, this may do the real issue more harm than good.
All that stories like this are good for are as titbits of superficial conversation, while gossiping around the water cooler at work – not for solving real world problems.
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